SurModics and Brookwood License Nanotechnology Drug Delivery System

SurModics, Inc. has announced that its Brookwood Pharmaceuticals subsidiary has licensed lipid nanoparticle technology from PharmaSol GmbH of Berlin, Germany. Under the agreement, Brookwood has exclusive rights to all pharmaceutical applications of the technology.

The PharmaSol technology can be used to formulate drugs into nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs™), which offer a number of advantages over other drug delivery nanotechnologies such as liposomes, emulsions and solid lipid nanoparticles. These advantages include increased drug loading, improved drug incorporation and the ability to produce suspensions of higher solids content, allowing for decreased dose size and products with longer shelf life.

NLC formulations of drugs can be administered orally, as well as through intravenous or subcutaneous injection. Brookwood is currently offering this technology to potential customers, while also generating additional data to accelerate product development of the NLC drug delivery platform.

“This license further broadens the drug delivery technology offerings of SurModics and Brookwood and complements our existing portfolio,” said Arthur J. Tipton, Ph.D., president of Brookwood.

“Our microparticle technology has demonstrated multi-day to multi-month delivery; incorporating this NLC technology can enable shorter-duration injectable delivery, targeted delivery and high value oral applications for nearly all therapeutic areas. The license agreement with PharmaSol demonstrates our commitment to offering leading-edge proprietary technologies to our customers.”

Professor R.H. Muller, Ph.D., the inventor of the technology and founder of PharmaSol, is a recognized leader in the field of lipid nanotechnology. Dr. Muller stated, “I am delighted we have executed this license agreement. Brookwood has exceptional capabilities in particle technology, including scale-up and manufacturing. With this collaboration, we can accelerate the development of NLC lipid technology and expand its use into a broad range of clinical applications including oncology, central nervous system (CNS) and cardiovascular.”